Hey new to coal here, just bought a house in western PA that is heated with oil and a hydro hearth. The nice thing is the chimney is a triple flu with no service in the 3rd flu. My previous house was ran off an outdoor boiler that just went threw wood like nothing (28 face cord a season), the last 2 years I started burning coal and cut wood use down to 10 cord. I am looking to install a boiler to add to the existing system with a water coil, I am leaning to something that burns wood and coal. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

phydeaux3 wrote:Hey new to coal here, just bought a house in western PA that is heated with oil and a hydro hearth. The nice thing is the chimney is a triple flu with no service in the 3rd flu. My previous house was ran off an outdoor boiler that just went threw wood like nothing (28 face cord a season), the last 2 years I started burning coal and cut wood use down to 10 cord. I am looking to install a boiler to add to the existing system with a water coil, I am leaning to something that burns wood and coal. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

phy,

I burned goerge's creek bituminous for 20 yrs at this house, and on and off for many years prior. I used an old iron fireman stoker on an old Red Square 5 section for the last 16 yrs, and burned no wood, except when starting the fire. A semi automatic appliance is so nice, compared to hand firing imo.

With that said, I'm a newbie to anthracite, [will fire my new Keystoker boiler soon], but my advice would still be to study anthracite use and then decide. Due to the lesser amount of "yuck" in the flue gas, the appliances can be made much more efficient. Mine is rated 84%, and there are some better than that. My point is, the anth costs more, but you'll burn less of it. I studied here many hours prior to buying my boiler. I have read of a number of fellows heating with anth that have more living area than I have, using 1/2 the amount of coal that I used when I heated with bit coal. My real experience with anth is limited to throwing 6+ ton of it into my bin, but I will say that there is no comparison, as far as dirt/dust.

Fyi, I don't know where you are in western PA, but know that there are coal yards in Somerset county [near me] that sell rice anth for $200 or so.